The newly floated Voice of the People Party (VPP) cannot claim ‘Winnower” (locally known as U Prah) as its reserved symbol.
This was stated by the Election Commission in a letter to the VPP on February 3.
In the letter, Election Commission’s Under Secretary Manish Kumar said that the list of Assembly constituencies is required to be submitted by the VPP five days before January 25 which is the date on which the notification of the Meghalaya Assembly election is scheduled to be issued.
“In view of the above, your request for allotment of a common symbol to the candidates set up by your party for the upcoming general election to the Legislative Assembly of Meghalaya has not been considered,” Kumar said.
Meanwhile, Chief Electoral Officer Frederick Roy Kharkongor while speaking to Highland Post today said that the letter from the Election Commission to the VPP clearly meant that “Winnower” is not a reserved symbol.
“It means that ‘Winnower’ is not a reserved symbol. It is a free symbol which any independent candidate in this election can also claim,” Kharkongor said.
“After they (VPP) registered with the Election Commission, they applied for ‘Winnower’ as their symbol. But they did not give the list of constituencies where they planned to contest at least five days before January 25 which is the date on which the notification was issued for the election. That’s why they cannot claim ‘Winnower’ as their reserved symbol in this election,” Kharkongor added.
He also said that the office of the Chief Electoral Officer has nothing to do with allotment of symbols since the same is decided by the Election Commission.
